Big City Sunrise

With the hope that their music can create a sense of community and make everyone feel at home, Big City Sunrise uses their bluegrass-tinted, foot-stomping mountain funk to further this ideal.

Playing with the belief that a “pure, youthful enjoyment of music will create a fulfilling atmosphere for both audience and musician,” Big City Sunrise takes every opportunity on stage to play with unbridled emotion and energy.

Guitarist Chris Thacker says, “We love to play, we love to listen, and we love to watch others play. It is our passion, it is our outlet, it is our playground. We have a blast creating music together, and even more fun performing on stage.”

Formed in 2003 when Thacker, Doug Meads (guitar, harmonica), Jeff Bynum (violin, lap steel), Adam Kahn (bass), Sam Steele (percussion), and Kevin Rainwater (drums) came together over fried catfish and a couple of cases of beer to do, in their words, “a little pickin’ and grinnin’.” A few hours later they realized they had a bond both musically and personally, and Big City Sunrise was born.

Since then they have found time to release two albums, Daybreak in 2004 and Live at the Georgia Theatre in 2006.

They recently spent time in the studio with producer John Keane, (Widespread Panic, R.E.M. and the Indigo Girls,) finishing up their third album for a spring 2007 release. The new album looks to continue to incorporate a wide range of elements from many genres into the Big City Sunrise sound, with the idea that it will “keep it interesting for the listener as well as keeping it interesting for us, the players.”

Their new album is sure to be full of the bouncy, vibrant homegrown music that the band has become known for, yet at the same time it is sure to include an ever-expanding range of influences and styles – a bluegrass shuffle, a honky-tonk backbeat, a hip-hop breakdown.

As Thacker says, “We enjoy stylistic diversity and try to create pieces of music that embrace the moods of each song, treating each of them as individual pieces of art.”